Monday, 07 Apr 2014, By Elliot Jager
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com IBM Mainframes Marking 50 Years of Service
The headline brought me up short. 50 years? It's been that long?
And then I began to think about my first introduction to them. I was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco. We would get massive computer printouts and, after reviewing them would make corrections in ink and then send them off somewhere to have the corrections inputted into they system - whatever that was.
It often took far too long to get the new information according to my boss. He wanted it done faster. So, I made my way down to the lower levels of the base to an old WWII converted warehouse where the machine was located. A quick lesson on punch cards and how to type in the data to make them work and I found myself in front of one of these:
So, as I sit here typing on my PC's keyboard, I shake my head and wonder who on earth calls them The good old days?
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com IBM Mainframes Marking 50 Years of Service
The headline brought me up short. 50 years? It's been that long?
And then I began to think about my first introduction to them. I was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco. We would get massive computer printouts and, after reviewing them would make corrections in ink and then send them off somewhere to have the corrections inputted into they system - whatever that was.
It often took far too long to get the new information according to my boss. He wanted it done faster. So, I made my way down to the lower levels of the base to an old WWII converted warehouse where the machine was located. A quick lesson on punch cards and how to type in the data to make them work and I found myself in front of one of these:
So, as I sit here typing on my PC's keyboard, I shake my head and wonder who on earth calls them The good old days?
